Day 4

After giving the memorial, I did nothing except hideaway inside of the boat. I felt selfish to be enjoying myself on an incredible island when the person I held closest to my heart had passed away. 

I ran my tongue over my chapped lips and ignored the empty feeling in my stomach throughout the whole day. My trousers were still wet after wading in the water and my feet were cold.

I dug my nails into the wood and looked to my right to see if I could spot the island boy, but as usual, he was hidden somewhere within the trees and bushes, probably still fussing with that stupid shelter of his and his mute dog.

Oh what am I…

I shouldn’t expect that stranger to pay me any attention, he has no idea who I am and I just happened to land on his island without his consent.

I angrily ruffled my hair and slapped my hands down onto the base of the boat, trying to stay calm but I couldn’t contain it for much longer as I screamed from the top of my lungs.

The birds silenced and the waves of the ocean stilled. The whispers and the hushes of the bushes and trees froze- in that very moment, I knew I was capable of flipping a table.

I didn’t want to damage my boat or else I’ll have nothing else to sleep in so I buckled out of it and ran towards the water. I kicked and slapped at the waves to rid my frustration until finally, I calmed down and was left to pant heavily from my mouth.

The last thought I had before I went to sleep was…why did I have to be so unfortunate?

~*~

A bad day can bring happiness on the next. I fluttered my eyes open to find myself surrounded in darkness. I looked up to see a large palm leaf blocking the light above my head and a small smile crept up my lips. The mysterious island boy has finally shown some form of recognition, but that wasn’t all.

I heard his voice.

He seemed to be giggling about something.

I popped my head up, causing the leaf to flop off my hair and land onto the sand, then I almost gasped out loud when I saw the boy right next to my boat, holding something between his cupped palms.

He looked up and I felt the entire world stop spinning for that very second. His chocolate brown orbs met mine and I almost felt as though I was going to faint because this time, he was up close holding onto a baby turtle.

“Look,” he whispered, bringing the turtle up closer to me. I blinked confoundedly at the boy before looking down at the adorable creature in his hands. “It just hatched.”

The boy smiled a heavenly white smile and looked back up to meet my gaze, petting the small turtles head whilst it squirmed and wriggled within his long fingers.

I was about to tell him to put it down so that it could flap its way into the sea to find its mother, but just as I opened my mouth the boy leapt up to his feet and ran with the turtle towards the water, possibly reading my mind.

I peered over the edge and found 6 or 7 baby turtles digging their ways up from a hole under my boat and I swore I heard my heart rip. They hatched under my goddamn boat!

I squeaked and climbed out before carefully dragging the boat away from their nest. Of all places, I somehow managed to stick my stupid rescue boat right on top of baby turtle eggs!

That was enough to make me all grouchy all over again.

The boy returned and stood a couple of inches away from me. Then my grouchiness dissolved into thin air.

He beamed another breath taking smile and bowed respectfully, his gorgeous golden hair flopping messily over his eyes and protruding within his eyelashes. “Hi.”

Words Youngjae, use words. “Uh...h-hey.”

You’re a flop.

“I’m sorry if I scared you…I’m Daehyun.”

Daehyun held his hand out to me and I hesitantly took it within my own, shuddering at how soft they were and giving them a gentle shake. “Follow me.”

Without releasing my hand or even allowing me to introduce myself, Daehyun turned around and began dragging me towards the forest without asking for my approval. So I guess one of his island rules are to just do and not ask. Interesting.

Words didn't exist for me as I kept opening and closing my mouth like a fish out of water. Who needs words anyway? Psh.

Daehyun stepped into the trees and bushes, pulling me along with him until we arrived at those familiar yellow Allamanda bushes I previously almost squashed under my weight.

“Come,” said Daehyun, pulling me by the hand again. We squeezed through the bushes until we arrived in that spot containing just sand and the shelter. He smiled and let got of my hand to pull a large leaf to the side.

“It gets pretty rough out there when the storm comes down, so I thought it would be nice to keep you safe in one of these.”

Daehyun disappeared through the leaves so I simply followed after, since that must’ve been what he had expected me to do. I took a look around the beautiful green leaves surrounding us and at the cosy hammock hanging from one end to the other.

“It’s perfect,” I say, looking up at the leafy green ceiling. Daehyun chuckled and scratched the side of his head. 

“I forgot to ask for your name,” he mumbled sheepishly, still holding that grin.

“Youngjae” I reply too quickly, causing me to bite down onto my tongue.

Daehyun pursed his smiling thick lips together and nodded. Oh lord his lips are kiss-worthy. “You’re the first person I’ve met in 5 years, Youngjae.”

Hold up. 5 years?!

Before I was able to squeak some words out of my useless mouth, Daehyun galloped away as if he totally gave up on trying to have a conversation with me. I slumped my shoulders and pinched the fat on my forearms for being such a jellyfish.

Great, I hate the ocean so much that now I'm even referring to it.

I lingered around in my hammock for a while before creeping through the bushes. A fat blue dragonfly flew into my face and I let out a cry, slapping the air like a crazed cat.

The dragonfly zipped passed, its large wings making loud flappy noises across the tranquil air leaving me there to wail and claw at nothing. I absolutely hate insects.

The next thing to interrupt the silence was my stomach. It growled and rumbled for an excruciatingly long moment, possibly stealing the attention of all the parakeets and parrots in this entire forest.

I clearly needed some food in me, and I'm pretty sure the parrots thought so too. I marched through the forest to hear the sound of something rippling…like a river.

As I walked on and emerged from the thick amounts of trees and shrubs, I found a river with a fallen tree going across to the other side.

Further down to my left, I heard the crashing sound of a waterfall. I crossed the bridge with some difficulty (yes, I may have crawled the entire way, big deal) and finally arrived on the other side. 

I found a whole patch of mango trees! I almost cried for joy since I had been craving something soft and sweet to sink my teeth into. Four or five mangos later, Daehyun crossed the bridge to find me cross-legged on the sand surrounded by mango peels and a mouth covered in mango juice. 

I quickly wiped my messy mouth the with back of my hand and cleared my throat, embarrassed out of my wits whilst Daehyun chuckled. His pet dog weaved its way around his y legs and ran up to me to the mango flesh off the back of my hand.

The dog was cute, so I giggled and watched it as it happily and wagged its tail. "She likes you," said Daehyun, stealing away my attention.

"I'm pretty positive that she only likes the mango guts all over my hand" I declared, giggling as its tongue tickled my palm. 

"Oh yeah?" Daehyun asked, walking over towards us. He bent over to pry his dog off me and I stopped breathing because I saw his through the loose vest he had on. I gulped and lowered my gaze, hoping my cheeks weren't going to give me away. 

"Can I ask you something?" he softly asked, scratching the dogs ears. 

"You just did." 

I didn't realise how rude I sounded until I replayed my tone of voice through my head. I seriously need to simmer down the sass when I'm with this guy. At first I couldn't choke out a word and now I'm suddenly being a . No offence, Sandy. 

Regardless, Daehyun chuckled with his sweet eye smiles before taking a seat opposite me, after removing a few mango peels out of the way. "I heard you scream yesterday. I was there so I knew you weren't in danger but...are you okay now?" 

What does he mean?

"What do you mean?" 

"I don't want to seem intrusive, so I was just wondering if the problem subsided and if you're okay now." he gingerly replied, his eyes glinting with some sort of concern. 

I was quite surprised how nice he was being, despite his lack in knowledge about me. His statement of 'being there' had me a bit on edge because that only meant he definitely witnessed my tantrum. I leaned back a bit and nodded, understanding that I did scream rather damn loud last night too. "I-I'm fine."

Rise of the stammering, quit it Youngjae. I bit my lip and played a smile, hoping Daehyun wouldn't egg on about it. Luckily he didn't, he just shrugged and stood back up onto his feet. 

"I'm going to go wash off at the fall with Sandy...wanna come?" 

I bit down hard onto the inside of my cheek and felt the tears sting my eyes. I was going to take it a step at a time.

I saw his today, and I wasn't ready to see more. I quickly shook my head and whimpered when he left because of the fresh bleeding cut inside of my mouth.

For the rest of the morning, I remained in the sand to stuff down a few more of the mangos, because they were the next thing sweeter to Daehyun's eyesmiles. 

~*~

Daehyun pulled out a wooden carved surfboard out of nowhere and had left the island to go surfing, obviously. We didn't talk since this morning and it was currently 5:20PM in the evening. I lazed around in my hammock, sticking my nose down an incredibly beautiful Mokara and questioning the existence of god. 

I didn't have a religion because there was too much suffering in the world to even consider there being a benevolent god outside of the universe. But staring at the purple petals of this flower made me think otherwise.

It was impossible for something so perfect to just come into existence by chance and it fascinated me. But then the thought of Jaehwan's tragic death brought me back down to the idea of there being no god, once again. 

He did nothing wrong to deserve him to loose his life. I sighed and stuck the stalk of the flower into my hair, still dwelling onto my thoughts when they were interrupted by another dragonfly. 

I squaked and flopped off the hammock, crashing clumsily into the sand and ending up with sand in my eyes. The toucan birds overhead laughed at me as I lay there, flustered and annoyed.

Dragonflies have just made their way to the top of 'the things I hate' list I treasure deep inside of my memory.  

When Daehyun returned from the beach, he went to his shelter to find my writing in the sand. 

I've just been an overly sentimental diva since I got here so I had to let Daehyun know that I had some sort of sanity dug deep within my skull. I filled my stomach that night with a can of tuna I retrieved from my boat and went to sleep, feeling content with the message I left for the island boy and succumbing into a deep slumber.

"Thank you." 

~*~

BABY TURTLES ARE SO CUTE OMFG I WANT ONE.